Petals and Triggers
by New Decade
Summary: When a friendly gesture is taken the wrong way, a jealous Eric is the result. But when does jealousy go from cute to aggravating?


I have no idea why I wrote this, I just remember one moment attempting to write "Holding On" and another fic that was requested, then the next thing I knew I had another story written. After thinking to myself "how the hell did this happen?" I decide to publish it, seeing as there wasn't any progress in my other fics, but I'm working on them. Finals are next week so I'll try to publish/update more when that is done.

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><p>A week ago, a friend of Calleigh's, who worked as a professor at Miami University, had called her to ask if she would be interested at coming in to give a seminar on ballistics for aspiring law enforcement officers. At the time, Calleigh was pleased to offer her expertise, but now she had just finished a twelve hour shift, which included a lengthy trial, and all she wanted to do was go home with Eric. She wanted to leave any responsibilities and any stresses she had at work, proceeding to forgetting them all together once she and Eric were alone in her house.<p>

But she knew it was too late to bow out now and she went to MU straight after work. Rupert, the friend that had called her, kindly showed her to the room where she would be presenting as well as helped her set up.

"Thanks for doing this," Rupert smiled at her as he hooked up her laptop to a projector for the slideshow she had put together.

"No problem," Calleigh assured him. "How've you been? Are you and your wife still doing okay?"

"Yeah, I think we're doing okay, as okay as the third wife can go I suppose," he shrugged; Calleigh chuckled, lightly. "How about you, are you seeing anyone?"

Calleigh didn't usually like to talk about her social life with people, especially people who she very rarely saw and was certain wouldn't understand how things had transpired within the recent months, her and Eric had only been back together since before Christmas. But she shook that thought out of her mind, she wasn't thinking this out the right way; Rupert was trying to be friendly by making small talk about relationships and things between herself and Eric were going great. Why shouldn't she behave like a regular person and continue the conversation?

"I am." Calleigh tried not to laugh at how surprised Rupert looked. "He's someone I work at CSI with."

"Yeah, how's it going?"

"Really great, actually," Calleigh smiled, truthfully.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it."

"Are you going to stick around and watch?" she asked as students filed into the room, all looking intrigued and many with a pen and notebook in their hands.

"Sorry, but as soon as I introduce you, I have to go. There is a conference tonight," he explained, clearly bored by the idea. "Believe me, I wish I could stay and refresh my mind with some of this."

Calleigh smiled and nodded in understanding, she knew how it felt to be in one place when you'd rather be in another; she was experiencing it right now. Only instead of wanting to stay here instead of going to a conference, she wanted to leave here and return home to Eric.

What Calleigh didn't know was that Eric wasn't home either. As she began her slideshow and lecture to the students, he crept in while the lights were low and sat down in the back to listen to her talk about the importance of ballistics evidence in a case and how careful analysis could very well put a murderer behind bars. There was a joy he received from watching Calleigh speaking about her passion and sharing her wisdom with the students.

The students were just as interested as Eric seemed to be, only they were fascinated since this was their first time learning about it. By the time Calleigh had wrapped up her speech, many had questions, especially one young man in the front row who raised his hand every other question.

At long last, even the Questioner fulfilled his curiosity and all the students left, except for Eric. He watched Calleigh as she moved around to pack up all of her materials.

"Miss Duquesne, I have a question," he smiled as he approached her.

Calleigh recognized the voice instantly and smiled at herself, deciding to play along.

"Go ahead," she permitted as she slid her laptop into its carrier.

"Are you ready to go home?" he asked.

Calleigh turned to him and grinned.

"Definitely," Calleigh chuckled, taking the small step off the stage and walking towards him.

"What are you doing here?"

"You think I'd miss you talking about guns?"

"Do you tune me out at work?" Calleigh asked, jokingly. Eric rolled his eyes and took her hand in his as they exited the seminar room.

* * *

><p>"Delko is very, very good," Ryan sighed as he pulled on his lab coat and entered the Trace lab.<p>

"Really, did he crack the case?" Natalia asked, shining a light on a victim's undergarment.

"No, but he-."

"Damn," she sighed, frustrated. "Because we are running out of leads, there isn't any semen on the vic's underwear."

"He must have used a condom. But it is a dead end," Ryan nodded.

"Maybe Walter and Calleigh will get lucky when they search her apartment," Natalia said, hopefully, as she packed up the evidence. "What was that about Eric?"

"He gave a certain girlfriend of his flowers that are currently sitting on top of her locker," he smirked.

"Would he really give her flowers in broad daylight, especially at work?" Natalia pointed out.

"You see, that's where the diabolical part comes in. He didn't sign the card and-."

"You looked at the card?" Natalia accused, incredulously. "Isn't that an invasion of privacy?"

"I was curious. Anyway, he didn't sign the card and he gave them to her now and he know we'd think he wouldn't give them to her in broad daylight," Ryan nodded, pleased with his logic.

Natalia rolled her eyes and shook her head, picking up the box of evidence.

"I doubt he'll put that much effort in a plan just to give Calleigh flowers. Now, I'm going to solve the real mystery, care to join me?"

"Killjoy," Ryan mumbled as she walked out of the lab.

"No, just not nosy," she retorted as she headed towards the evidence locker, running into Eric in the hallway.

"Hey, did you get anything?" he asked

"No, the victim's clothes came up negative from any usable evidence. But this was a body dump, so…"

"So he could have raped her somewhere else and that can lead us to evidence."

"And with Dave going through her contacts on her phone and Calleigh and Walter at her place, we may get lucky," Natalia grinned, putting up the evidence. "By the way, prepare to be grilled by Wolfe."

"About what?" Eric asked.

"The same thing he has been grilling you about for years."

"Great," Eric sighed, heatedly. "What's he coming at me with this time?"

"The flowers on top of Calleigh's locker," Natalia recollected.

"She has flowers on top of her locker?"

Natalia looked at him, guiltily, regretting saying anything. Part of her had believed Ryan's theory; she just wasn't going to admit it to his face. She knew Eric well enough that he was one to have a jealous nature, especially when it came to Calleigh. She had seen him give people like Jake the look of death on more than one occasion, even when Jake and Calleigh weren't together. He kept his face composed, but she knew that behind his features was someone jealous that someone sent the person he loved flowers.

"Guys, guess what Calleigh and I found at our vic's apartment," Walter said, grinning broadly. "Signs of a struggle, a murder weapon, the missing round, and a condom."

"Sounds like you hit the jackpot, I'd better go test the DNA on the condom," Natalia said, hurriedly leaving the room, Walter at her heels as Eric's phone started to ring. Too distracted by the fact someone else could possibly have feelings for Calleigh, he didn't bother looking at the caller ID before answering.

"This is Delko."

"Hey, it's me," Calleigh's voice said. "So, this wasn't a very subtle way to-."

"It wasn't me," Eric interjected. Everyone knew that secrecy, even if it was in vain, was important to Eric and Calleigh and that their affections at work were very discrete and Eric didn't want her thinking he would betray that.

"I hope not, you'd be serving twenty-five to life," Calleigh chuckled.

"What are you talking about?" Eric asked.

"The case," Calleigh said as though it was obvious, then her voice turned suspicious. "What are _you _talking about?"

"Nothing," he answered, quickly. "It's nothing."

"Okay," Calleigh sighed, though she sounded skeptical. "I just test fired the gun and compared the rounds to the one we got at her house, it's definitely the murder weapon, but the bad news is that it isn't registered in IBIS."

"Well, Natalia's going to run DNA on the condom, maybe we'll get a hit."

"I hope so. But our lunch breaks are coming up and it might be awhile until we get the results, so you want to go get a bite to eat?" Calleigh suggested, he could hear the smile in her voice and it brought one to his own lips.

"Sounds good to me," he nodded.

"Okay, I'll meet you outside in twenty," she said before ending the call as she turned back to her evidence report, looking at her watch to make note of the time.

"Calleigh," a male voice said, grabbing her attention. Calleigh looked over her shoulder to see Tom walking into the lab with a bouquet of flowers in his hand.

"Hey, the morgue getting a bit too chilly for you?" Calleigh asked, jokingly, as she put her pen down to face him.

"Not me, I never get cold and I never catch them either," he smiled, proudly. "But no, actually, I'm in here to bring these to you."

Tom extended the flowers in front of him for Calleigh to take, her smiling up at him, shyly.

"Thanks," Calleigh grinned, a bit confused to why Tom was handing her a bunch of red carnations.

"Oh, they aren't from me," he stated, quickly. "You see, I had to leave in a hurry because I completely forgot that I had to be in court this morning and I was in a mad rush to make sure I had my case ready for any questions. Then as luck would have it, my car breaks down and I have to call a cab service. Then-."

"Tom," Calleigh cut across him as kindly as she could manage, but Tom had this habit of rambling at the most inappropriate of times; she did have a lunch date and work she needed to get work done beforehand.

"Oh, sorry. Anyway, I just got back from court and I saw these on your locker. I wasn't sure if you had noticed them or not and I'm sure you don't want them to wilt."

"Well, I didn't and I don't. Thanks you, Tom."

"No problem, well, I should be heading back," he grinned before turning on his heel and leaving the lab. Calleigh shook her head as she laughed under her breath and turned back to the table to start back on her work, but not before looking at the flowers in her hand. She knew many people would have drawn the conclusion that these were from Eric, but Calleigh knew better simply because she knew Eric. He would never give her flowers at work; they were both in agreement about keeping their relationship at work as professional as possible. When Eric did give her flowers it was normally on her birthday or Valentine's Day, in which he would give her tulips, knowing they were her favorite. The spontaneity and the breed of flower were enough to tell Calleigh these weren't from Eric; she didn't need to open the card to know that. The card, however, didn't have a name, but it was fairly obvious by the message who it was from.

It read:

_Calleigh, thank you so much for what you did last night. _

She couldn't help but smile, Rupert, her friend who asked her to speak yesterday, had always been one to show how grateful he was when someone did him a favor. Truth be told, she was a bit relieved he had been the one to send these to her, the last thing she needed was for another person to be sending her flowers with other motives in mind; she couldn't even fathom the thought of how Eric would have reacted _had _someone sent her flowers.

* * *

><p>Eric stood at the bottom of the stairs of MDPD, waiting for Calleigh once lunch rolled around. As he waited at the bottom of the cement steps, Eric went over every person in his mind who would have feelings so strong for Calleigh, other than himself, who would want to send her flowers. That had been the only thing on his mind and he couldn't control it, his jealousy had engulfed him to the point he had become possessed by it.<p>

At least when Jake was here he knew who had feelings for Calleigh, he knew who Calleigh was spending her nights with, who she had vacationed in Antigua with. The lack of suspense had only slightly numbed that pain, but now he was driving himself mental because the suspense _was _here.

The suspects he had in mind ranged from Travers to the kid who was constantly asking her questions the night before. There were many possibilities, many suspects, but he didn't have any evidence, something he seldom came by. He had went downstairs to see these ominous flowers that were supposed to be resting on top of Calleigh's locker once his break had started, only for the top of her locker to be bare with the exception of some dust mites.

"Daydreaming on me, Delko?" Calleigh's voice broke him out of his trance-like state. He turned towards her as she joined him at the bottom of the steps and smiled.

"Hey, Cal," he greeted her, but his smile apparently didn't shield the look he had on his face when she first saw him.  
>"Are you okay?" she asked him, looking a bit concerned.<p>

"Yeah, I'm fine. Great," he reassured her.

"Are you sure?"

"Now, Calleigh, would I lie to you?" Then he realized that phrase probably wasn't the most appropriate to use considering the past. "Don't answer that."

Calleigh chuckled and rolled her eyes.

"C'mon, are you hungry?" he asked as they walked towards the parking lot.

"Very," Calleigh admitted, appearing to let the subject drop. But Eric knew Calleigh and he knew that she wasn't about to forget about his moment of inattentiveness.

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><p>Calleigh and Eric sat outside with their meal at the fast food restaurant. The temperature was cooler than usual and the humidity was bearable, nice enough to enjoy eating outside. The shade from the umbrella over the table blocked the sun beating down from above and they were able to enjoy the time off to truly have a lunch date.<p>

The single imperfect thing to Calleigh at this moment was the man sitting across from her; an odd thing for her to think, 'imperfect' wasn't usually how she described her boyfriend. But his mind seemed to be dancing in another world and it was impossible to jerk him out. She had tried constantly to start a conversation, which would last briefly before it fizzled out. She tried talking about work, asking questions about his family, anything that had any chance of sparking his interest. Until she finally lost him entirely, Eric was so deep in thought he wasn't even hearing a word she was saying.

"Eric? Are you okay?" Calleigh asked; he even seemed to be chewing his food thoughtfully. "Eric?" No answer and it was becoming apparent to Calleigh that she was going to take drastic measures to snap him out of this. "Mac Taylor called and says that he wants me to join his team in New York, I may take it."

Eric's head snapped up, his eyes shocked, Calleigh was just relieved that something she had said finally sunk in.

"That got your attention," Calleigh grinned before taking a sip of her iced tea, giving him a wink to assure him she had been lying. "Are you okay? You've been acting strange all day."

"I haven't been acting-."

"Eric, you flipped out over the phone, you've been staring into space all day and you keep zoning out. This isn't like you."

"Calleigh, I'm fine," he insisted. "I'm just thinking."

"You know, I've come to learn that when say that you're fine, it generally means that you aren't."

Sometimes he hated that she knew him so well, especially during instances like this when she could see passed every charade he put on. But Eric knew just as well as she knew him and knew that she would merely round his jealousy off as irrational

"But I am fine, I'm great," he stated.

Calleigh shook her head and sighed in frustration. "You know I'll figure it out eventually."

There was no doubt in Eric's mind about that, she _did _always figure everything out, but he was hoping to delay that at least until he figured out who sent her flowers.

"Shoot," she muttered to herself in frustration.

"Everything okay?" he asked in concern.

"Yeah," she sighed. "I just left something in Firearms."

"Something for the case?"

"No," she shook her head, spearing some more salad on her fork. "Rupert sent me flowers and I left them off to the side in the lab by mistake.

"_He _was the one who sent you flowers," Eric thought aloud, shock and relief coating his voice.

"Yeah, they were a thanks for helping him out at MU last night," she explained, then she narrowed her eyes. "You knew someone sent me flowers?"

Eric decided to execute his right to remain silent and looked down at his food, feeling her eyes boring into him.

"You knew that someone sent me flowers, but you didn't know who and it has been driving you crazy," Calleigh inferred, her voice getting increasingly more frustrated. "Right?"

Calleigh waited for Eric to say something, but he didn't have to. He met her eyes and there was something guilty there, she knew precisely what his thoughts had been.

"That's it? You've been acting this way all day because someone sent me _flowers?_" Calleigh asked, incredulously. "You've been staring into space for the last few minutes over something irrational and I here I was thinking something serious was on your mind."

"So, you don't think me getting jealous, or upset, or whatever, about someone sending you flowers is rational?" Eric questioned.

"Not to the extent of you being secretive about it," she retorted.

"You would have treated it like it was no big deal."

"It isn't a big deal, Eric," Calleigh sighed, frustrated. "What did you think that someone sends me flowers and I'd run to him? I have a little more self-respect than that."

"I know, Cal-."

"So why all the drama?" she demanded.

He sighed, heavily, knowing that no matter which way he explained his feelings, she wouldn't be able to completely understand. Calleigh would never be able to comprehend how protective he was of her or how afraid he was that one of these days someone would come along and take her from him. Eric had felt the agony of losing her twice already and he barely survived, he wouldn't know what it would do to him to lose her for a third time, but he was beyond certain he wouldn't be able to bear it. Little did she know how certain Eric was that someone he had thought to be a loyal colleague could potentially be trying to put a wedge between him and the woman he loved.

Calleigh exhaled sharply and ran a frustrated hand through her hair, attempting to soften her tone. "Listen, I know you get jealous, everyone who has a pulse does, but this is just…just ridiculous. I try not to get this consumed by jealousy whenever someone bats their eyelashes at you."

"No one has," Eric shrugged.

"Oh, really? What about Victoria in Autopsy? She has a thing for you and everyone suspects it," Calleigh said, matter-of-factly.

"Well, I don't have a thing for her."

"I know that. And _you _should know that I don't or ever will have a thing for anyone else, no matter how many flowers they may send."

"I do. Okay, I do know that," he sighed.

"So why all the secrecy?" she asked. "Eric, when you can't come to me to talk about something as trivial as sending me flowers, how am I supposed to trust you'll be honest with me when there is a bigger problem?"

Her words were the equivalent of getting punched in the stomach. Trust had been one of the larger issues in their relationship and Eric had to admit the majority of that had been do to his mistakes. They had gradually worked back up to the level of trust they had lost and now, because of something minor, it was once again put back in jeopardy. He had known for months that at all times he needed to be honest with Calleigh, for she was used to being betrayed and being lied to by the few people she felt she could put faith into. He had vowed to not be one of those people, but he had broken that promise he had made to her as well as himself. She had been willing to forgive him, now he felt he was destroying his final chance.

The sound of a cell phone ringing interrupted their conversation and made them both jump slightly in surprise.

"One sec," Calleigh sighed, pulling out her phone. "Duquesne?…What you got?…Mm-hmm…okay, we'll get him," she hung up and turned back to Eric. "Natalia got a hit in CODIS from the semen contribution on the condom. Derek Morris, he is a student in MU, in the system for a petty theft misdemeanor back in oh-eight. I'll drive."

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><p>Calleigh barely spoke to Eric the remainder of the work day, except to tell him she would be staying a few hours late at work to catch up on some of her cases, saying she'd see him at home. Eric tried to find comfort in the fact they had agreed to meet again at home, showing she had clear intentions on seeing him again that night. He just prayed by the time he saw her again, she had time to calm down and at least attempt to forgive him.<p>

He was lucky enough to have his wish granted, for after some extra hours in the Firearms lab, she had been able to reevaluate the situation as well as blow off some steam. Calleigh walked into her house that evening with her purse, laptop bag and flowers in hand. The lights were still on, despite the lateness of the hour, when she stepped inside and the sound of the TV was on in the living room, slightly turned down; it was apparent that Eric was waiting up on her. But instead of going to him straight away, she made a beeline to the kitchen. She placed her purse and laptop on the counter, pulling a vase out of the cabinet above and garden shears from the drawer. She filled the vase with water and unwrapped the bouquet from their plastic wrap, trimming the stems with the shears until they could fit in the vase.

She placed the vase on the counter as she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her.

"Are you still mad at me?" he asked, softly.

"No, I'm not mad," she shook her head. "Annoyed? Yes."

"Will saying I'm really sorry help?"

"A little."

"Well, I am really sorry," he said, sincerely as Calleigh turned to face him. "I shouldn't have overreacted about a friend sending you flowers and getting jealous and, once again, overprotective."

Calleigh sighed, softly. "I'm not annoyed that you got jealous—okay, maybe a little. What I'm really upset about is you didn't talk to me. I've been opening up to you more than I'd used to, so I thought you'd do the same. If we are going to have a chance, we need to talk."

"I know and I'm sorry," Eric whispered. "I just thought if I talked to you about it you would tell me to shrug it off and forget about it."

Calleigh chuckled and leaned out of his arms, picking up the shears in the process. "Well, you're right about that," she said as she put the shears back into their rightful drawer; Eric rolled his eyes.

She turned to face him and took a few wide paces to get to him faster. Calleigh looked him straight in the eye as she took both of his hands in her smaller ones.

"You don't need to worry because I care about us too much to be swayed by anything or anybody. You mean more to me than I think you know and a bouquet of flowers isn't going to be enough to change everything we've been through."

"I know," he nodded. "But you know me."

"And you know me," Calleigh said, patiently. "So you know I can care less if anyone attempts to hit on me, whether it be through direct flirting or sending me flowers….Besides, the man I'm with used something a little bit more original than flowers," Calleigh grinned, snaking her arms around his neck. "He used the truffle method."

Eric laughed at the memory she was referring to, his classic smile never failed to take her breath away.

"So am I forgiven?" Eric asked, hopefully.

Calleigh inwardly debated whether or not to let him off that easily before she stretched up on her toes and put her lips to his; Eric willingly kissed her back as her lips gently teased his. She felt his warm hands rest on her hips, one of his thumbs grazed over the skin under her shirt. He probably would have gone farther, but Calleigh had made up her mind. She slowly leaned out of the kiss and looked back up at him.

"Promise you'll talk to me next time?" she asked.

"I promise," he nodded.

"Well, that and because I know you go crazy because you care, I'll forgive you," she grinned.

"Thank you. And Cal?"

"Yeah?"

She felt Eric's arms wrap around her tighter and his lips touch the veins in her neck. "You can trust me."

Calleigh smiled up at him and whispered, "I know."

His eyes lit up in joy and what appeared to be relief, he leaned back down to kiss her once again.

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><p>I hope y'all liked this, I promise I'll write more for other stories once school is out of the way. If I don't, feel free to fill my inbox with threats ;)<p> 


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